The following letter is from the Chairman of the Republican Party for Brazoria County. I believe the letter speaks for itself. It is unfortunate we are forced to spend valuable time on things such as this instead of trying to defeat liberals who truly are dangerous for our country. Ron Paul may think that people in Brazoria County outside of his inner circle are “enemies of liberty” (from a letter to his supporters during the primary), but I assure you we are not.
To Precinct Chairs: August 17, 2010
An incident during our August Republican Party Executive Committee meeting in Angleton has prompted me to attempt to clear the air on a matter that should have been shelved back in June. Bruce Bolock brought up state GOP convention challenges he filed against me during the 2008 and 2010 convention processes. Why he brought up a matter that should have died with the 3,000 to 12 vote by the State Republican Convention, to refuse to strip me of my 2010 convention credentials, I have no idea, but he seemed to be looking for support and sympathy. An email from one of his supporters pointed out the fact that executive committee members clearly do not have all of the facts.
First of all, let’s get his motives out on the table. Mr. Bolock is not a Republican, he is Libertarian, and is very anti-Republican, to put it bluntly. He criticized the Republican Party in Brazoria County for its failure to endorse Ron Paul for President in 2008. We do not, as a party, endorse candidates in contested primaries. We allow the Republican primary voters to choose a nominee, and we get behind their choice in the general election.
We are Republicans, not Libertarians. We hold very different views on issues like legalizing drugs, pornography, gambling and prostitution, among other differences. If we held Mr. Bolock’s views, we would be Libertarians, not Republicans.
For background, most of you are aware that in 2008, the Ron Paul for President campaign hired people to come into Texas from other states to conduct seminars on hostile convention takeovers, on the challenge process, which they used as a tool to try to strip Republicans of their convention credentials. This was seen by some as an effort to elect more Ron Paul supporters as delegates to the National Convention.
In Brazoria County, Ron Paul’s County Chairman, Bruce Bolock, filed two challenges against me in 2008, neither charge was a rule violation. The first was for my failure to give him copies of all of the precinct convention minutes in Brazoria County. Section 174.027 of the Texas Election Code states that the original precinct convention minutes are not public record, and copies of any documents not deemed to be public record, are generally not considered public record. That challenge was tossed out by the Officials Committee in Austin and not forwarded to the Credentials committee at convention.
The second challenge was for a supposed violation of the Open Meetings rule. Mr. Bolock had attended a Credentials meeting, which is allowed, but when he tried to tell the committee what to do, he was ordered to leave by another Ron Paul supporter. So Mr. Bolock filed his challenge stating that I violated Open Meetings by my failure to appoint him to the Credentials committee so that he could speak. Naturally, since I was under no obligation to appoint him to anything, his challenge was denied and I was seated as a delegate. However, I left home at 6:10 a.m. on Wednesday and did not arrive back home until 1:37 a.m. on Thursday. The Credentials Committee worked for nearly 22 hours straight, with only one break for a meal. The Ron Paul supporters had filed challenges all over the State of Texas. They did not prevail at the 2008 State Convention.
In 2010, Mr. Block challenged me for my position as County Chairman on the ballot. He worked the early voting polls, telling voters that there were real problems in the County Republican Party, and they needed to help him to get elected, and get his precinct chairs elected so that he could take over, ostensibly to “fix the problems. Other comments by Mr. Bolock were to the effect that the party had money problems, which as you know, is completely untrue. You know we have always had a comfortable cushion, and the accounts are completely controlled by you, the Executive Committee, with regular reports by the treasurer. Bolock did not prevail at the ballot box.
While waiting for the convention, he filed a complaint against me with the Texas Attorney General, citing my refusal to turn over copies of records under the Government Code. One more loss to Mr. Bolock, as his request to force me to turn over records was denied by the Attorney General.
His 2010 challenge was once again for my refusal to make copies of the precinct convention minutes for the entire county, including SD 11, which Mr. Bolock is not a part of. This time the challenge was the only one in the state forwarded to the Credentials committee, the Ron Paulians having moved on to the rules committee. Because the challenge had been thrown out in 2008, I called the state party to find out why it was being heard in 2010. I did not get a response, but conferred with legal counsel, and others, and was told that he was not entitled to the personal information contained in the precinct convention minutes, therefore, I did not have to copy them for him..
During the 2010 State convention, the Credentials Committee voted 18 to 12 to seat me as a delegate. One of Mr. Bolock’s Liberty Campaign cohorts filed a minority report. He initially got the 12 dissenters to sign on to his minority report, but 6 of them withdrew once they learned what the report amounted to. (Mr. Bolock tried to tell this story on August 9th, but got the facts completely backwards.)
In a standing vote, at least 3,000 convention delegates stood with me, and about 12 stood with the clear minority. The overwhelming percentage of aye votes was affirmation that the delegates recognized sheer harassment by Mr. Bolock in the challenge he filed.
I cannot explain why Mr. Bolock brought this up, during a meeting of a group he has no standing with, a couple of months after he should have closed the book. This tells me that Bolock plans to keep his issue alive in preparation for the challenge he will file in 2012. You make the call: rule violations, or harassment? In other words, adherence to the party rules is not a factor in his decisions, and never has been. I will be challenged on some trumped up charge in 2012.
The party rule in question was changed during the convention, and if it stands, will require the county chair to make the records available for examination. The rule is, however, in direct conflict with the Election Code and will have to be addressed sooner or later, since we cannot have a party rule that conflicts with the Texas Election Code.
I would suggest that we all concentrate on our real enemy, Barack Obama, and work together toward a common goal, trying to restore our Republic. We are wasting precious daylight hours.
Sincerely,
Yvonne Dewey
ydewey@sbcglobal.net
303 Jasmine
Lake Jackson TX 77566
{ 1 comment }
Good job Yvonne!!
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